Between our Baltimore and Washington, DC, venues, more than 17,500 animals representing 900 species call the National Aquarium home. There are constant changes, additions, and more going on behind the scenes that our guests may not notice during their visit. We want to share these fun updates with our community so we’re bringing them to you in our weekly Animal Update posts!

The tricolor, or phantasmal, poison dart frog (Epipedobates tricolor) is a small red or brown poison dart frog with blue stripes that is found in the rain forests of the Andean slopes of Ecuador. At the National Aquarium, we have a population of these frogs in the Upland Tropical Rain Forest exhibit, as well as in one of the Hidden Life exhibits at the end of the Rain Forest. These frogs reproduce year-round, but there’s currently a baby boom happening!

There are six froglets in this photo - can you spot them all?

Juveniles can be tiny enough to fit on the fingernail of your pinky!

This young froglet is about the size of a dime!

As they grow, their blue stripes will fade into view, but as froglets they are mostly a solid brown color so they can hide among the leaf litter.

You can tell the two froglets in this picture are older because their stripes are fairly well defined (though not yet completely bright in color).

Stop by to see the young froglets in the Hidden Life exhibit, closest to the rotating door headed toward our Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit!